Age Of Conan Doubles Revenue With Free-To-Play

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Funcom has announced that Age of Conan has benefited from the switchover to a free-to-play model. The game has racked up 300,000 new downloads since that time, with revenues doubled.

“We have been working hard to show that we are one of the best, and most unique, MMO experiences on the market,” said executive producer Craig Morrison. “Our focus now is to deliver even more content and new experiences to players, starting with the movie tie-in Adventure Pack that is launching in the near future.”

“The launch of the hybrid business model has been very successful so far, said Funcom CEO Trond Arne.  “The activity levels on the servers are booming with a fourfold increase in players during July, we more than doubled the revenue generated from the game, and we have experienced a positive development in subscriber numbers. This definitely gives us great hope for the game s future.

Rift Developer’s Next Game Is Free-To-Play

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Trion Worlds made a big deal about how Rift would be supported by a subscription-only model. However, the company’s next big game End of Nations will be free-to-play with options for solo, co-op and 52 simultaneous multiplayer.

Being able to offer a premium game such as End of Nations for free sets us apart in this industry, said Dave Luehmann, the title’s executive producer and vice president, 3rd Party Development for Trion Worlds. At Trion, we strive to innovate online gaming while emphasizing the delivery of the best core gameplay experience available. Our decision to release End of Nations as a AAA free-to-play title is guided by these principles.

Games Come To Google+

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Google launched a number of games on Google+, as was widely rumored. The social network will first feature a small number of games, including Zynga Poker, EA’s Dragon Age Legends, Rovio’s Angry Birds and PopCap’s Bejeweled.

“Because we want to provide both a great user experience and a great developer experience, we re focusing on quality before quantity,” said engineering director David Glazier. “We will continue to add new partners and new features in small steps, starting with today s release of the games APIs to a small number of developers. We re keeping a close eye on feedback, and are eager to open up more access as soon as it s ready.”

“We’re very excited to be among the first games launching on Google’s new social project,” commented BioWare’s Ray Muzyka. “It’s an honour to join Google in celebrating the birth of their gaming platform on Google+ by expanding Dragon Age Legends to an even wider audience.”

Men In Black, Total Recall And More Licensed By SEE Games

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SEE Virtual Worlds and SEE Games have announced that they have teamed up with entertainment companies Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Digital Entertainment, Universal and Les Editions Albert Rene. They will publish digital and online games based around the 2005 movie War of the Worlds the 1995 movie Waterworld and the upcoming 2012 releases Men in Black 3, Total Recall and Asterix.

“SEE will bring some of the most well-known entertainment properties to the gaming space through these major licensing agreements,” said Martin Biallas, CEO of SEE. “These properties are tied to memorable moments and incredible characters that players are going to interact with in future SEE-created digital and online interactive video games.”

FortressCraft Breaks $1 Million Sales Mark

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Xbox Live Indie Games has been maligned for its inability to raise up significant cash for indie developers. However, Projector Games has announced that their Minecraft imitator FortressCraft has moved over 400,000 copies with over $1.2 million in sales.

“The Xbox community has taken notice of this gem of a game and the conversion numbers (the percentage of people who download the demo and then go on to purchase the game) prove just that.” said Projector Games media manager ViraGunn. “Just because we’ve hit this milestone does not mean we’re going to kick up our heels and be content. A massive update is on its way – further adding to the depth of the world of FortressCraft, including customizable blocks and server rankings amongst other things.”

Source: fortresscraft.com {link no longer active}

Prototype 2 Contest Lets Players Get In The Game

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Activision and GameStop have announced a “Get in the Game,” pre-order promotion for the upcoming Prototype 2. Those over 18 years of age who preorder the game from GameStop before September 1, 2011 will have a chance to enter a random drawing to win a trip for two to Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, Canada to become a character in Prototype 2.

“Thanks to this great partnership with Activision and GameStop, we have an incredible opportunity to offer gamers something truly unique,” said Ken Rosman, Studio Head, Radical Entertainment.  “In addition to just seeing themselves in the game, the winners will actually be able to locate their virtual selves and shape-shift Sgt. James Heller into their likeness.  Radical wouldn’t be where it is today without our fans, and this is just another way for us to thank them for all their support.”

More details about the offering can be had at gamestop.com/collection/prototype-2 {link no longer active}.

Braid Maker Says XBLA A Pain For Certification

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Braid creator Jonathan Blow has made no secret of his acrimony for the approvals process that Microsoft puts developers through for Xbox Live Arcade. The indie developer indicated that his upcoming game The Witness was made for $2 million, which could be easily made up with iPad and Steam sales.

“Like, it’s not even a gamble to say that. They [Microsoft] just kind of make themselves a pain in the ass. I don’t think that they understand that, at least for that size of game, they’re competing very heavily with Steam and iOS for developer mindshare. If you make an XBLA game, the amount of bullsh*t that adds is gigantic. It can take a third to a half of the effort required to build your game, in some cases, and I don’t think that they understand that, Blow said. “I can live a comfortable life, and just put my game on Steam without that much of a hassle or I can have the XBLA business people dick me around and give me asshole contracts that I need to spend three months negotiating back to somewhere reasonable… And then have all these arguments with them and go through this horrible cert[ification] process. It’s like, at some point, the question ‘Why should I do that ‘ arises.

“We just had Terraria on Steam… not to mention Minecraft, which doesn’t even need Steam. So even the argument that XBLA is the biggest market is starting to come into question. I don’t know how much longer that that can go without something changing. I don’t know. Maybe quite a long time, knowing the abilities of these companies,” he said, adding XBLA does have a big audience, and it’s still probably bigger than Steam for certain kinds of games.”

Source: Gamasutra

To The Moon Is Haunting

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Indie gamemaker Kan Gao was inspired by a near death incident of his grandfather to make a game about doctors who can convey memories on the terminally ill where they live out their dreams. The keenly edited trailer does a good job of conveying the emotion of the game To the Moon.